340  Notes  on  Some  Old  Remedies.  {^"^juiyaSf""^ 
Embelia  Ribes,  Burmann,  belongs  to  the  order  Myrsinaceae,  and 
grows  in  Silhet  where  the  berries  have  long  been  used  for  the  adul- 
teration of  black  pepper  which  they  closely  resemble  in  appearance, 
and  to  some  extent  in  flavor.  Dymock,  in  his  work  on  the  Materia 
Medica  of  India,  states  that  they  are  efficacious  against  tapeworm^ 
and  form  the  principal  ingredient  of  several  patent  medicines.  G.  H, 
Harris  confirms  {The  Lancet)  their  efficacy  for  the  complaint  stated. 
The  remedy  is  given,  powdered,  in  doses  of  two  to  three  drachms  with 
milk  or  with  curds  early  in  the  morning,  fasting,  and  some  hours  later 
is  followed  with  a  purgative,  like  castor  oil. 
Siegesbeckia  orientalis,  lAnne,  order  Compositse,  is  widely  distrib- 
uted throughout  Southern  and  Eastern  Asia,  where  the  bitter  balsamic 
herb  enjoys  a  reputation  in  dysuria  and  other  complaints  of  the  urinary 
organs.  Dr.  J.  Hutchinson,  of  Glasgow,  reports  (Brit.  Med.  Jour.) 
his  success  in  different  forms  of  ringworm  with  the  internal  use  of  a 
syrup,  prepared  from  the  expressed  juice  of  the  plant;  a  liniment  com- 
posed of  equal  parts  of  tincture  of  siegesbeckia  and  glycerin  was  em- 
ployed externally.  The  drug  appears  to  act  both  as  a  stimulant  and 
parasiticide. 
Several  of  the  remedies  enumerated  above  seem  to  deserve  closer 
study  on  the  part  of  pharmacists  and  physicians.  Very  few,  if  any,  of 
them  are  likely  to  be  honored  in  the  future  by  a  place  in  our  national 
Pharmacopoeia.  Still,  even  this  distinction  may  be  supposed  to  be 
in  waiting  for  a  larger  number,  when  it  is  remembered  that  in  the  last 
edition  such  previously  discarded  plants,  like  Calendula  and  Chelidon- 
ium,  were  again  admitted. 
Tbe  Haya  Poison. — An  arrow  poison  called  Haya,  has  been  examined 
for  Messrs.  Christy  and  Co.,  of  London,  by  Dr.  Lewin,  of  Berlin,  and  was  found 
by  him  to  consist  of  a  substance  identical  with,  or  allied  physiologically  to 
erythrophloein,  a  substance  which,  he  thinks,  acts  as  a  local  anaesthetic.  But 
Tweedy,  in  a  letter  to  the  Lancet  (February  4th,  1888,  p.  249),  denies  that  ery- 
throphloein produces  anaesthesia,  and  Liebreich  {Deutsche  Med.  Wochenschrift, 
Feb.  16, 1888)  casts  doubt  on  the  inferences  which  Lewin  has  drawn  from  his 
experiments.  He  considers  that  Haya  is  probably  a  form  of  serpent  poison, 
and  hence,  as  Lewin  found,  acts  more  powerfully  when  injected  subcutaneously 
than  when  taken  by  the  mouth.  The  erythrophloeum  bark  found  in  the 
poison,  Liebreich  thinks,  is  probably  simply  an  impurity.  Lewin  says  that  a 
paper  which  is  about  to  appear  in  Virchow^s  Archiv  will  show  many  of  Lieb- 
reich's  objections  to  be  groundless. — 3fed.  Chronicle,  March  1888. 
